Legal question: Assault

[TXlib]

What is the difference between "assault", "aggravated assault", and "assault and battery"?

I'm just curious...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Basically

Simple assault - no weapons, minor injuries

Aggravated assault - attempt to do grave injury whether you succeed or not, weapon or no weapon
Assault and battery - same as above only medical treatment is necessary

[unblock]

2. depends on the state

but generally, assault is merely a plausible threat of imminent harm (not actual physical contact or damage). the threat doesn't have to be verbal, simply pointing a gun at someone or running toward them with baseball bat in windup position is enough. in fact, there pretty much has to be some physical demonstration to make it clear the threat is not an idle one (e.g., the rhetorical 'i'm gonna kill you' which really just means i'm angry at you but have no intention of actual harm) although a known history of following through on such threats, e.g., would do.

aggravated assault is assault under certain special circumstances, such as assault with a gun or assault against a police officer or emt.

battery is actual physical contact and damage. assault and battery is the physical contact and damage with the preceding threat. if you get clocked from behind, there's no assault, only battery. if you see it coming, it's both.

disclaimer: i'm not a lawyer, i just helped my mom study through law school....

[TXlib]

3. If two people are arguing heatedly...

in a volatile situation, and one touches the other -- not forcefully, but lays a hand on the shoulder in a not-so-friendly way, or jabs with a finger, is that assault?

[TiredTexan]

5. No. Any unpermitted touching

is battery, not assault.

[TiredTexan]

4. Well, it's been almost 20 years

since my criminal law class in law school, but to the best of my recollection (because I can't find my Black's Law Dictionary): (1) assault is "the threat of imminent bodily harm," (2) "assault and battery" is the threat of imminent bodily harm plus unwanted physical contact, and (3) aggravated assault is a legal term for assault where there is an aggravated characteristic added by the charging authority which makes the charge more serious than a simple assault charge - for example assault would be a Class B misdemeanor, while aggravated assault would be a Class C Felony. Aggravating factors would include the type of threat (sexual vs. simple argument) or where the assault victim was threatened with death as opposed to simple bodily harm.